ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The College Football Playoff race could be held across the country on Saturday, with multiple games potentially impacting the 12-team field. They get the game, thank you.
You know what’s bigger and better than the upstart playoffs? Life and death between Ohio State and Michigan.
And if you don’t think that’s what this frighteningly great Americana is after the Buckeyes mercifully ended five years of misery with a resounding 27-9 victory, you haven’t been looking closely enough.
“As you can imagine, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to say in this press conference for years,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I’m going to save all of these comments because I think it’s best to win with humility.”
That’s not the case in this game, and for all that it means and everyone it affects. So someone else did it for him.
Like the Ohio State players lying on the grass at Michigan Stadium, happily spreading the angle of the snow across their joints. Or OSU’s mascot, Brutus Buckeye, at the goal line in the south end zone, using his foot to write the letters Ohio State and an “X” over the “M” for Michigan State.
Because not only do they not care about the entire state of Michigan, they refuse to even use the letter M in any way, shape or form.
“We ended up emptying out the stadium,” Ohio State quarterback Julian Sane said. “There was a lot of red in there.”
If a second-grader from Carlsbad, California committed a venial sin, please forgive him. the scarletJulian.
Remember that when you pick up your bronze trophy in New York City next month.
“Their eyes were great,” Day said of a team that lost four straight to Michigan and hadn’t won The Game since 2019. “I don’t think there was any doubt when we entered the stadium what was going to happen.”
This statement was completely laughable before it all unfolded on a typically snowy and blustery late November day in Michigan. This game is full of suspicion, in the greatest sense possible.
The Game is the only movie where Day looks like a battered, bruised, lost puppy in one season, and a year later his perfect work is on display in the Louvre.
Only in The Game can Michigan continue to stumble for the better part of three quarters, like a team and coaching staff that hasn’t made any mistakes since 2021 and lost the biggest moment of its life.
Only in “The Game” can Ohio State shove years of debilitating grievances, years of having its toughness and masculinity questioned, down Michigan State’s throat.
The Buckeyes played bullish ball, taking advantage of a relentless run game in poor conditions, decisive throws from Sain and a pesky defense to escape the recurring nightmare that has suffocated the program.
Late in the third quarter and into the fourth, Ohio State used admirable patience and a painfully effective 20-play, 81-yard drive (16 runs) to kick Michigan’s first field goal in 23 years with 12 minutes to play and put Michigan to sleep. Finally, and fittingly.
That’s the only way to stop this losing streak. It’s the only way Ohio State can get back to where it was and is now.
Physically there is no doubt.
Because losing The Game last season and not winning the national championship won’t ease the pain Michigan inflicted on them.
The 2021 rout ended Ohio State’s winning streak at eight and marked the only significant victory for Michigan coach and alumnus Jim Harbaugh in his first seven seasons. Seven.
The 2022 rout saw Michigan finally break through and reach the CFP, making it clear that Ohio State has a Harbaugh problem.
A one-possession victory in 2023 gave Michigan the confidence and momentum it needed to win its first national championship since 1997.
And the 3-point win in 2024 rescued first-year Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore from a five-loss season that almost led to Day being fired.
Imagine a coach who won 82 of 92 career games in the biggest fishbowl in college football history, and then nearly lost it all because he couldn’t beat The Team Up North. Absurd, sure, but that’s the game, folks.
“It’s not true that the last four years have been easy,” Day said. “When you don’t accomplish those things, you take it personal.”
There’s nothing like Michigan vs. Ohio State until you experience it. The inevitable, pulsating, three-hour annual march means everything. A 365-day buffer will not lessen the hate and hurt, it will only magnify it beyond imagination.
Not only did Ohio State go 2,190 days between wins (but who’s counting?), and a team it despises like no other, not only did it get better in those five years and four losses (they didn’t play during the 2020 pandemic season), they won it all at the expense of the Buckeyes in 2023.
What followed was a soul-sucking victory unlike any other in series history (and I’m not exaggerating).
So after Michigan made a long run on its first drive of the game to take a 3-0 lead, and then Thain threw a lame interception in double coverage to give Michigan a six-point lead, all that old gut punch started to leak out.
On the ensuing series, a perfect 35-yard touchdown pass from Sane to Jeremiah Smith, it was all over on fourth-and-5, and Ohio State never led again. In fact, I was never actually threatened.
“We had to stay calm,” Sain said. “We had to keep fighting.”
Emotions and momentum swings are so intense in this competition that execution flaws are so scrutinized and every play and every decision is placed under the most extreme of fanatics’ unforgiving microscopes.
Only in this game, $12 million quarterback Michigan freshman Bryce Underwood looks like a dime replacement, going 8-of-18 for 63 yards and an INT.
Only in this game, a kid from Cali who grew up surfing at Solana Beach and had never played a game in cold weather above 50 degrees can game out his short life at Ohio State University in the freezing snow. And it measurably enhances his already impressive Heisman Trophy.
Ohio State has played 12 games now and hasn’t really been tested. While the rest of college football’s teams jockey for position, the Buckeyes haven’t lost since the last time they played The Game.
Since the loss and the resulting infighting between the teams and the ensuing mayhem.
But instead of fading away, Ohio State not only got better, it got meaner, tougher and mentally stronger. At this moment, one year later, everything changed.
Ohio State had 77 yards rushing in last year’s game. Ohio State hired UCLA coach Chip Kelly to lead the offense after a season that focused on the run game. Freshman tailback Bo Jackson had 77 yards rushing in the first half. By the time the Buckeyes got the big win late in the fourth quarter, they had 186 rushing yards.
Ohio State had 73 plays and Michigan had 42 plays. Ohio State had the ball for 40 minutes and Michigan had the ball for 20 minutes.
Ohio State defeated Michigan by playing the Michigan way — hold on to your Bucknuts, everyone — exactly what the Buckeyes tried to do last season and failed spectacularly.
“During the season, when things are going well, I always say it’s great,” Day said. But what would it look like if it snowed sideways in late November?
It looks like the first beautiful thing since 2019.
Please hang it in the Louvre.
Matt Hayes is a senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X @MattHayesCFB.
